About

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Blog a Book, Jump a Brook, Take a Look

Early in May, after reading Heather Rojo's publishing a blog book and blog book update , I realized this was a great idea. The letters written by Ralph Jabez McPherson, my Uncle Ralph's letters, had laid in their shoe boxes while I fussed about how to make them accessible. Family members wanted copies, though I was pretty sure that the copies would be mostly unread and my work not valued. However, to have a published book of the letters that my Uncle Ralph wrote, now that's a project of value to me and one in which I could sink my teeth. Every day as I post letters, I can see the book taking place before my eyes, even though I have posted only about 25% of the letters.

My plan is to have all of the 150+ letters posted, with short commentaries, by the first of September. I am hoping that gives me enough time to index, add family groups for a road map to the characters, figure out a cover (I am not the most artistically inclined person) and publish around the 1st of November. This project is a typical one for me; I have not done this kind of project before; I don't know exactly how to do it,but jumped into the project with more enthusiasm than sense. As summer is coming on with all the pleasurable activities pulling at me, I need accountability. Therefore I am posting periodic updates on this blog and asking for comments and suggestions --- and encouragement from my Geneablogging friends. I have learned much from you all in these few short months I have been part of this great group..

12 comments:

Thanks for sharing the links to Heather's blog post about using Blurb. I came across Blurb a couple years ago and got all excited about creating a book from some of my blog posts (Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories) only to find that it didn't work with blogs on the Blogger platform. I never gave up on the idea but didn't come across a publisher who could slurp from Blogger. Obviously, Heather is using Blogger and managed to slurp her book there so hopefully I can do it now too! :-)

I struggle to research and write blog posts in the summer. I really prefer to be outside... the summers are too short here in Michigan and I hate to spend the time inside at a computer. However, summer is also when I have the most time to take on a project like writing up my family history. Decisions, decisions. [Sigh]

Joan, good luck with your project. After those posts about Blurb I heard from quite a few bloggers who tried it and liked the results very much. Several also used Blurb just to produce photo books of their antique photo collections, which was a great idea (I'm thinking of doing the same). I heard from TK Sand that books over 120 pages will be "perfect bound" not sewn bindings. If a sewn binding is important to you, try to keep the number of pages below 120. All softcover books are also "perfect bound" instead of sewn.

My niece showed us several books she had blurb make for her. I thought the paper, the printing, and color were really good. I wanted to investigate the binding a little more closely but didn't want to pull it apart in front of her to examine it. ;-) I hope you'll keep us posted on your efforts with your book - your experience, photographs when it's finished, etc. Good for you!

This is a great project, Joan. You'll be thrilled when you have the end product in your hand. The grunt work gets tiresome, but when you see what you made, you'll want to make more. It's enormously satisfying!

About Me

A child of the 30’s and 40’s, “Betty Crocker” mom of the 50’s and 60’s, college student of the 70’s, businesswoman of the 80’ and 90’s, and finally retired to my home in the hills south of Ashland, Oregon, to garden, contemplate, and write.